Congressmen rip Park Service for huge Calif. blaze

U.S. Reps. criticize Lassen Volcanic National Park officials

Published 1:42 PM PDT Oct 24, 2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -

Two California congressmen blasted the National Park Service on Wednesday for letting a wildfire burn despite extreme conditions last summer, a decision that conflicted with the practices of other state and federal agencies.

U.S. Reps. Wally Herger and Tom McClintock, both Republicans from Northern California, criticized Lassen Volcanic National Park officials for decisions that allowed the Reading fire to eventually erupt into an inferno that scorched more than 42 square miles and cost $15 million to suppress. It destroyed private property, hurt the region's logging industry and devastated prime tourism destinations in an area known for its remote beauty.

Herger said the officials responsible should be removed and changes made to the national policy that uses managed wildfires as a tool to clear out forests and improve wildlife habitat.

"The professionals I heard from are astonished that the Reading Fire was allowed to burn in the middle of the summer ... with conditions across the West primed for a terrible fire season," Herger said.

McClintock used the hearing to advocate for a resumption of widespread logging. He said clear-cutting can provide the same benefits as fires that leave behind a "moonscape" of devastation. Massive wildfires cause air pollution, environmental damage and threaten people and wildlife, McClintock said.

"Any squirrel fleeing a fire knows this," he said, "which leads me to the unflattering but inescapable conclusion that today our forest management policy is in the hands of people who lack the simple common sense that God gave a squirrel."

McClintock said the current policy is that "we have to destroy the forest in order to save it," a notion that he described as "New Age nonsense."

Bill Kaage, the park service's Wildland Fire Branch chief, generally defended the decisions but said parks officials intend to learn from the fire.

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